New Project: Rug Tufting

The Gun Has Arrived

I spend a lot of time on the internet researching things. I love to know how things are made. I stumbled on this craft called Rug Tufting. I'd never heard of it. I've seen latch hook and other needle punch crafts but this was a different thing. 

Then I got into YouTube and queried "Rug Tufting Gun" and wow! There was a lot of hits, some quite old so this wasn't a new craft, just one I'd never heard of. 

So off to the internet I went again, this time trying to find a gun for sale. Everywhere was sold out with long back order wait times. They all seemed like the same gun coming from China so I thought it wise to purchase through Amazon. At least I have the protection from them should anything be wrong with my transaction. 

So here it is. The tufting gun. I got the cut pile version which inserts the yarn to a specified height (that's adjustable somehow) and then cuts it with little scissors that pop out after the yarn is inserted through the cloth. The other type of gun is loop pile. 

It took a while for it to arrive from China and the box arrived crushed but it's here. 

Initially I thought everything was okay but then I realised that the handle wouldn't swing freely and upon closer examination, I realised the handle was bent. I was able to bend it back so it mostly swings freely. Hopefully it will be usable. 

There was no documentation with this gun, nothing. Not even a slip of paper. Thank goodness there's some info online but those people are just figuring it out for themselves too. One blogger I was reading spoke of lubricating the gun every time you use it with WD-40. I would disagree with that. I don't believe that's a proper machine oil. Here you should probably use a sewing machine oil. That's just my opinion though. 

I was inspecting the gun closer and I noticed the eye where you have to feed the yarn through has a black piece covering half the hole. It would be a challenge to get one strand of worsted weight through that hole, never mind having to put 2 or more. 

See the pic below. It was hard to get an in-focus shot. 

I think we determined that this screw will loosen that black piece so we can move it back a bit. Fingers crossed. 

So I'm going to try to move that piece. 

I've already wound a bunch of yarn cakes in anticipation of my test project. 

My hubby will build me a frame to stretch the cloth later today so once that's done, I can give the gun a try. So excited. 

I will report back once I've given the gun a try.